Organizer hopes third year for Lion’s Chase is legendary

Volunteers with MFuge, a church-based mission organization, helped created new obstacles for The Lion’s Chase — a challenging obstacle coure 5k race held ever fall in Whitley County.

All great things start with an idea.

A dream.

Local youth Pastor Jeff Sparks had one. To create the biggest and best obstacle course 5k race in the nation.

Going into the Third Annual Lion’s Chase, Sparks says confidently he thinks his unique race stands tallest in a field of perhaps better known races.

“I’ve been to a lot of them. I think we have the best,” Sparks said. “It may not be as well known, but word is getting out there. People are coming to the Lion’s Chase and they are having a good experience and spreading the words. It is growing. The numbers this year on registrations are looking real good.”

Year one of the Lion’s Chase drew 240 participants. They climbed, crawled, leaped and shimmied through about 30 obstacles before finishing the race, and gaining a sense accomplishment.

For 2013, obstacles were added to the race, which is run on a farm in rural Whitley County, and attendance swelled to 425 — almost an 80 percent increase.

“That’s the thing about the Lion’s Chase,” Sparks says. “When people get done, they know they’ve done something that day. It’s a challenge to get through it.”

Early indications are that the race is in for another big bump in participation. Sparks said he is planning for about 700 to 800 runners this time around.

Greeting them will be a bevy of new challenges. Runners will have to scramble over a chest high bar in their way, climb a makeshift ladder constructed between two trees and navigate a clever obstacle built across a creek, just to name a few.

Sparks said he gets inspiration for his obstacles all throughout the year, and works periodically in advance of the race to make them a reality.

“I’m always thinking about it,” he said. “I always want to improve it. When people run in The Lion’s Chase, I want them to have the best experience they can possibly have.”

Youth from MFuge, a church-based mission, came from North Carolina, Mississippi and other places recently to help Sparks make improvements to the course.

“They really helped,” he said. “I was able to get so much done with them helping out. That was a real blessing.”

Since its inception, Sparks has been adamant about not only adding obstacles and challenges to the race, but making it an overall better experience for participants. Last year, two tracks were added to the race: one for those who are running it competitively for time, and those who just want to finish.

“That was the biggest problem we had the first year … there were some bottlenecks that slowed people down. We got some feedback on that and fixed it by having two sort of paths for people to run it on,” Sparks said. “That was a real good change. People liked that a lot.”

Also, at some obstacles were runners would tend to back up, more ways to overcome it were added to accommodate faster runners.

This year’s Lion’s Chase will take place on Sept. 13. Currently, anyone can register to be a part of the event for $55 until Aug. 13, when the price jumps to $60. It goes up to $70 after Aug. 30 and will be $80 on race day.

For more information on the race, go to www.lionschase.com.